THE WRONG TURNING: Encounters with Ghosts

by Stephen Johnson

A curated selection of chilling ghost stories from world literature,_x000D_ introduced and edited by broadcaster Stephen Johnson. What these _x000D_tales of the supernatural have in common is the theme of taking a_x000D_ 'wrong turning' in which the protagonists are made to face their _x000D_darkest fears. In the spirit of a fireside storyteller, each tale has an _x000D_afterword by Stephen Johnson, to suggest what the story might _x000D_really be telling us. With contributions from Tove Jansson, Henry James, Penelope Lively, Emily Bronte and more.

Genres: Fiction, Horror, Short Stories

193 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Marilyn Shea · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've ever become impatient when someone is telling a scary story and long to just blurt out, "Just get to the scary part!", this book is for you. It contains excerpts from many longer frightening tales but only includes the actual scary part of each. The frightening aspects of these scary parts are somewhat diminished because we don't have all the suspenceful build up that a longer telling of the tale would provide. And the title, "The Wrong Turning," refers to the point in every scary story in which the main character has a choice and takes the wrong one. When a group of friends tries to spend the night in a haunted house and they hear a noise upstairs, they have a choice--call Uber and get the heck out of there, or go up, armed only with a lighted candle, to investigate. They grab the candlestick and reconnoiter every time. If they didn't, there wouldn't be any story to tell. Some old classics, like "The Monkey's Paw," still pack a wallop althought we all have heard it in its many iterations at every camp or slumber party we've ever attended. This is a compact little scary book that isn't that scary. Sort of Horror Lite.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Without a doubt the most poorly written intro in the history of intros. As for the collection, it was pretty disappointing. Not really spooky, not really much about ghosts…An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a great story but not at all about ghosts. And Moonimpappa at Sea? Seriously? I liked that the story excerpts were short and that there were intros for each one. But apart from that, there must be better collections of ghost stories.

[Kez · Rating 3 out of 5]

perhaps in need of more criticism interwoven with the extracts but a great collection of pieces selected with refreshing and interesting ponderings of depictions of 'ghosts', hauntings and the unsettling throughout a variety of literature.